You might want to start with Suzanne Birch at IACCM Resourcing sbirch@iaccmresourcing.com. Also, you can post your resume on the IACCM Job Post page under the resource tab. Good luck!

P.S. Next week Suzanne Birch will be hosting a Women's Networking Group webinar on 'Marketing Yourself through Social Media.' You might want to sign up for it. Check out the events calendar.

• Phillips 66
•
2015-04-14 08:41:32

You might want to check with Global Resources depending on what you want to do. They do a lot of placement of professionals into Corproate settings as consultants. My company has used them and I know peopel that work for them.

Dear Daniel - In my view any legal training/education will help you going forward and demonstrate to a new employeer that you have legal competencies in place.

If I was hiring my interest in you being such a strong technical profile would increase if you had legal merits to show.

Hope this was of some help !

/Ole

• Occidental Petroleum Corporation
•
2019-02-12 17:40:50

Daniel - I recommend you go for it. However, I have two perspectives on this based on experience; and one personal perspective that underlies my decision to take the same course of action you're contemplating. I worked as a US Federal Contracting Officer for almost ten years - the first seven before I attended/completed law school. Subsequently, I have worked in the private sector including large, global agreements in the IT industry.

Experience perspective 1: Some attorneys and paralegals felt threatened in some manner because I had a law degree. Their perspective is that they are "legal" and I should only be dealing with commercial matters, leaving the "legal" issues to them. I've actually heard some in legal oppose the hiring of Contract Management professionals who also possess a law degree. Finally, I also had at least one manager who apparently felt threatened that subordinates (I and five other Contract Managers) had law degrees from colleges and universities from around the world and had told me that he would not agree to hire an "attorney" for a role I had on my team.

Experience perspective 2: Other attorneys and paralegals I have worked with were more self-confident and not threatened by the fact I had a law degree and was licensed to practice law. Instead, we worked together to leverage my legal knowledge/skills to help manage their time. I would escalate issues and have regular touch-point meeting so that they were informed as to ongoing issues and permit us to collaborate and discuss difficult legal/contractual issues. It also gave me more flexibility to negotiate agreements that protected the legal and business interests of the party I worked for without having to go back to "mommy/daddy" each time an issue arose in the negotiations. At the same time, we also had a working knowledge of the limits of my authority and a good working relationship where I could quickly escalate and propose a solution for them to consider and ask questions about - something we called the "4Cs", ("Communicate, Collaborate, Consult and Crosscheck"). I had learned this from a wonderful attorney who had been the general counsel where I had once worked.

Personal perspective: I decided to go to law school because as a US Government Contracting Officer I had to regularly discuss issues with our attorneys. Not having a sound understanding of the broad areas of the law that applied (not just contracts) sometimes caused me confusion when the attorney would try to explain something - particularly when it ultimately impacted the contract or the enforceability of a provision in the contract. I decided to go to law school to gain a better understanding. It resulted in me have a much deeper understanding of contract principles that must be applied and of the concepts we all rely on (whether or not we realize it) when we draft, negotiate, operationalize and enforce our contracts. I recommend you go for it.

• Neptune Marine Service Ltd
•
2019-02-26 05:23:02

Hi Daniel,

If you can afford the time & cost for the legal degree (LLB or JD)- then will be worth considering that.

From my personal experience, some sort of Commercial/ Contracts/ Business law certifications or diploma will give the required knowledge and upper edge for the jobs.

Regards,
Gaurav Seth

• AusNet Services
•
2019-02-28 18:24:20

Hi Daniel, I don't believe a law degree is necessary. It depends on the role.

I am legally qualified and I echo Mark's comments. I find that I am better able to articulate the risk I see with my legal friends.

The main thing is do you want to do it? A law degree will give you additional skill such a negotiation etc. It will also give you confidence in the law around contract law, construction, tort and tax.

But a law degree will also give you so much detail on those areas that you won't need all in your role.

• BAE Systems
•
2019-03-01 05:23:07

Hi Daniel,

I was also a Commercial Manager at GE for approx. 4 years and with the company 11 years. Since my redundancy just over a year ago, I have been trying to find a like-for-like Commercial Operations function like we had at GE but a number of Commercial Manager roles sit either in the Finance function or the Legal function, not as their own Commercial Operations function.

I'm contemplating doing a Juris Doctor to gain legal qualifications on top of my BBus and MBA Exec as I don't want to go down a CA/CPA path. Otherwise I am exploring the IACCM certification.

Hope it all goes well for you with the decision,
Tania

• Itron, Inc.
•
2019-05-01 21:42:38

Depends on how your organization is structured but typically no. In fact there is a good argument that they should not be lawyers as that role has different specialties.

This is definitely something that should have greater consideration in my organisation, I have been quite vocal in pushing it. I have worked in teams where particular members have found the lack of bounds extremely stressful as they feel they are crowded out or put upon by the more vocal members, who are equally frustrated it takes so long to get things done. Clarity in defining the roles and responsibilities can often be an enabler.

• Airbus Defence and Space Limited
•
2019-08-18 12:37:30

Agreed, this is a great article and really gets you thinking about the behaviours instilled within your own immediate team. If we cannot get the behaviours and roles clearly specified for our own team members first we are setting ourselves up to fail in the wider team and externally.

• Experian
•
2019-02-03 22:03:09

Agree - this was quite an insightful article. I've always believed that it should work in reverse - that you should set the objective and then leave it up to individuals to work out how to get there, which is what the article says except for specifying that their roles need to be clear. I believed that if roles were less clearly defined then it gave people scope to expand their remit, however I can see why this can cause confusion.

Hi,
Ive had a lot of experience of very dominant Clients who are never willing to negotiate any give on their side, only improvements for them. I have found you need to identify this type of individual very early on in the process and realise that this behaviour will not change through the lifecycle. Decisions need to be made as to whether the deal that you are being faced with is worth it or not - is it good business for you or are they asking for too much. Id love to hear any specific approaches of how to deal with this type of client as its not easy.

I would go into the conversation with the CEO asking what it is that the CEO wants greater transparency over and then demonstrate how this can be achieved by leveraging the CCM role out from under finance.

• British Antarctic Survey
•
2018-06-29 06:56:03

Its fast becoming established in many (albeit usually larger) companies to have CCM as its own function reporting direct into CEO/MD, so you can say you're following best practice. To echo your comment, this recognises the independence and increasing importance of the function and ensures CCM has equal voice.

CCM under Finance is a bit of an anachronism, however try to ensure there's no implied criticism of your CFO in this move...ideally get them to support the change?

In addition to particular responses from other members who may have noticed such a potential decline in remuneration, if any, I would encourage the poster of this forum entry to regularly check IACCM annual salary review. Please refer to our IACCM library, by clicking on www.iaccm.com/resources/contract-management-resources/